Website migration
Website migration is moving from an old website to a new one without losing what was acquired: the content, the addresses known to engines and partners, the ranking. It is prepared with an address inventory, one-by-one redirects and a monitoring period after go-live.
What has to be done
- List every address of the old website, including those nobody looks at any more
- Decide for each one: the equivalent page on the new website, or a close page, or an assumed removal
- Set up permanent redirects, old addresses to new ones
- Declare the change in Search Console and watch unindexed pages and broken links for a few weeks
- Warn the partners who point to precise addresses
Why it matters
Google explains in its site move guide that redirects are what transfers the history from one address to another. Without them, every page starts from scratch. For a ten-page website it is a morning; for a website with several hundred pages in several languages it is a project in itself, and that is what takes a large website out of the Kern4Good ladder.
Do you always lose ranking when redoing a website?
No, if the redirects are done and if the content that brought visits is kept. A small dip for a few weeks is normal; a lasting drop almost always comes from forgotten addresses.
Should old pages be kept?
Those that still receive visits or links, yes, migrated and reshaped. The others can disappear, with a redirect to the closest page.